From a limestone statue in the Cairo Museum.
History.—In the hot, dry sands of Upper Egypt, which preserve the dead from decay, have been found the bodies of large numbers of pre-dynastic Egyptians. They were of the type known as the 'Mediterranean race'. The
contents of their stomachs have yielded husks of barley and millet and fragments of mammalian and fish bones. Circumcision was practised, and some men shaved. These people used malachite as an eyelid paint. When they discovered that copper could be extracted from malachite, it was used at first like gold, as has been stated. The production of copper implements and weapons was followed by the conquest of Lower Egypt by the copper-using Upper Egyptians. After the latter moved north, they found that the bodies of their dead decayed, and the practice of mummification was introduced. Before 3000 B.C. the broad-headed, long-bearded Armenoid type began to filter into Lower Egypt. The blending of Armenoids and Arabians in Syria produced 'the hybrid race of Semites'. In Egypt the ethnic fusion was most marked at the commercial capital, Memphis, and especially during the time of the pyramid builders (c. 2900-2750 B.C.). The spread of 'copper culture', and the importation into Egypt of timber from Lebanon, apparently brought the ancient races into close contact. Withal, shipbuilding and the art of navigation had advanced by leaps and bounds. Before the Pyramid Age there were sea-traders on the Mediterranean, and the Egyptians imported copper from Sinai across the Red Sea. The legendary Pharaoh who united Upper and Lower Egypt was Mena or Menes. From his time (c. 3400 B.C.) till the close of the sixth dynasty (c. 2475 B.C.) the capital was Memphis. This period is known as that of the 'Old Kingdom'. Among its outstanding monarchs were Khufu, Khafra, and Menkure of the fourth dynasty, the builders of the largest pyramids. Herodotus refers to them as Cheops, Chephren, and Mykerinos. The 'Middle Kingdom' begins with the rise of Thebes in Upper Egypt as the centre of political power. During this period the nobility became so influential that the Pharaohs had to recognize their rights and privileges. In the period of the famous twelfth dynasty (c. 2000-1788 B.C.) the Theban monarchs established a uniform control of Egypt. The later kings of this dynasty were unable, however, to withstand the inroads of Asiatics, and the Middle Kingdom came to an end with the Hyksos invasion. Of the Hyksos, the so-called 'Shepherd Kings', little is known. They were civilized Asiatics, and during their overlordship of Egypt, which embraced the thirteenth till the seventeenth dynasties (c. 1800-1575 B.C.), the horse and chariot were introduced into Egypt. A Theban royal house rose into prominence during the latter part of their sway, and the Hyksos were finally expelled by Pharaoh Aahmes, who founded the eighteenth dynasty. The Empire period was then inaugurated. Egypt's greatest emperor, Thothmes III (1515-1461 B.C.), extended his conquests to the borders of Asia Minor, and received tribute from the Hittites, and even from Cyprus and Crete. During the reign of Akhenaton, the Hittites and their allies, the Amorites, seized the Egyptian sphere of influence in Syria and Northern Palestine.
In the nineteenth dynasty (1350-1205 B.C.) much of the lost territory was recovered. Rameses II (1325-1258 B.C.) fought his Waterloo at Kadesh, but found it necessary about 1300 B.C. to conclude a treaty of peace with the Hittites, the Assyrian Power at the time becoming very powerful and aggressive. Rameses III of the twentieth dynasty was the last great Pharaoh of the Empire period. He successfully resisted the threatened invasions of naval and military peoples from Greece and Anatolia in 1200 B.C. It is believed that the Trojan War (1194-1184 B.C.) was waged by the same confederacy which had attempted to invade the Delta region. No fewer than nine Pharaohs named Rameses ruled in Egypt after Rameses III. Most of these were priest-kings. A Libyan dynasty held sway for about two centuries (950-750 B.C.). One of its Pharaoh-Sheshhonks
was the 'Shishak' who was an ally of Solomon; after the death of that monarch he invaded Palestine. The Ethiopians of Nubia (Sudan) subsequently overran Egypt. One of its Pharaohs, Shabaka, was the ally of King Hosea of Israel against Assyria; he was defeated at Raphia by Sargon in 720 B.C. The last Ethiopian Pharaoh, Taharka, was in 662 B.C. overcome by the invading army of the Assyrian Emperor, Ashur-banipal. The northern royal family of Sais then came into power, and the twenty-sixth dynasty, which lasted for about 130 years (662-525 B.C.), was inaugurated by Psamtik I. Pharaoh-Necho, referred to in the Bible, was the second ruler. It was during Necho's reign that his Phœnician mariners circumnavigated Africa. Egyptian culture was at the time spreading far and wide along sea and land routes. Trade was flourishing. The greatest world-power at the time, however, was Persia, and in 525 B.C. Egypt was conquered by Cambyses and became a Persian province, with short interruptions of weak native dynasties (the twenty-eighth to thirtieth), until in 332 B.C. Alexander the Great seized it and founded Alexandria. The Ptolemaic dynasty afterwards held sway for about three centuries. During this period learning and the arts flourished. Alexandria was not only a commercial town, but a centre of culture and the capital of Egypt. Osiris was worshipped there in the form of Serapis. During the latter part of the dynasty the native Egyptians were using Greek and Græcized names, and the whole country was more or less Hellenized. The fifteenth Ptolemy was the younger brother of the famous Cleopatra, the seventh of her name. He vanished, and was succeeded by Cleopatra's son, Cæsarion—Ptolemy XVI—whose father was Julius Cæsar. Both Cleopatra and her son perished when Egypt became a Roman province in 30 B.C. A daughter of Cleopatra and Antony became the wife of Juba, King of Morocco.
From a relief on the wall of the temple at Der-el-Bahari. The face is of Mediterranean type. She represents the royal line which soon afterwards fused with a foreign strain, so that the facial type changed.
From the mummy